Plant diversity in Yunnan: Current status and future directions

Abstract

Yunnan, located in southwestern China, harbors more than 19,000 higher plants, which represents the highest plant diversity in the country. However, plant diversity in Yunnan faces enormous threats today, including habitat destruction and fragmentation, environmental pollution, and over-exploitation of natural resources. Despite recent efforts to protect biodiversity, there are still thousands of threatened species, some of which have become extinct. We analyzed available data to gain a greater understanding of plant diversity and the status of plant conservation in Yunnan. We found that southern, southeastern, and northwestern Yunnan are hotspots of total species, endemic species, specimens, new species and threatened species, whereas southeastern Yunnan is a hotspot for plant species with extremely small populations. Moreover, we found that there are still conservation gaps and poorly protected areas in central, eastern, and northeastern Yunnan. We conclude that conservation of plant diversity in Yunnan requires modern field investigation, systematic research, the development of comprehensive databases, and government support. We recommend that conservationists pay more attention to building and improving functional protection systems and popularizing science.

Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau: a mycological hotspot

“…Guizhou owns an average 61.92% karst landforms out of all the landforms and the main vegetation types in Guizhou are broadleaf and mixed forests . Domestically, Yunnan Province is contiguous with Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Tibet in China and shares international borders with Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (Qian et al 2020). Natural resources and biodiversity in Yunnan are abundant, and approximately 19,333 plant species belong to 3,084 genera, and 440 families can be found of which 17,000 are endemic (Qian et al 2020).…”

“…Domestically, Yunnan Province is contiguous with Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Tibet in China and shares international borders with Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (Qian et al 2020). Natural resources and biodiversity in Yunnan are abundant, and approximately 19,333 plant species belong to 3,084 genera, and 440 families can be found of which 17,000 are endemic (Qian et al 2020). Yunnan has three climatic areas viz.…”

“…the tropical area at the southwest, south, and southeastern border; the subtropical zone in the west, middle and east; and the temperate zone in the high-elevation area in the northwest (Yang et al 2008;Qian et al 2020). Main vegetation types in Yunnan are Tropical Rainforest, Monsoon Forest, Evergreen Broadleaf Forest, Sclerophyllous Evergreen Broadleaf Forest, Deciduous Broadleaf Forest, Subtropical Needleleaf Forest, Temperate Needleleaf Forest, Bamboo Forest, Savanna-like Shrubby Grassland, Scrub and Meadow (Qian et al 2020). During the last decade (2010-2020), a considerable number of mycology studies have been carried out in this region.…”

Estimating the Potential Impacts of Climate Change on the Spatial Distribution of Garuga forrestii, an Endemic Species in China

“…The roles and impacts of anthropogenic activities contribute towards shaping biodiversity patterns and habitat loss in this region and could threaten the existence of G. forrestii species, despite it being listed as a species of "Least Concern" under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. There is a need to establish a more welldesigned and integrated protection system, reinforce the protection of genetic diversity and devote more resources to propagating citizen science and environmental education in this region [72]. Furthermore, the hotspots regions in the future regions could be recommended for the in situ conservation programmes for the species.…”

Meiogyne oligocarpa (Annonaceae), a new species from Yunnan, China

“…Yunnan Province is located in southwestern China and harbors more than 19,000 plant taxa, accounting for over 50% of China's overall floristic diversity (Qian et al, 2020). Plant diversity in Yunnan faces continuous threats with the deterioration of ecology and environment, however.…”